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109. Now, for the time that intervenes between man's
death and the final resurrection, there is a secret
shelter for his soul, as each is worthy of rest or
affliction according to what it has merited while it
lived in the body. 110. There is no denying that
the souls of the dead are benefited by the piety of
their living friends, when the sacrifice of the
Mediator is offered for the dead, or alms are given
in the church. But these means benefit only those
who, when they were living, have merited that such
services could be of help to them. For there is a
mode of life that is neither so good as not to need
such helps after death nor so bad as not to gain
benefit from them after death. There is, however, a
good mode of life that does not need such helps, and,
again, one so thoroughly bad that, when such a man
departs this life, such helps avail him nothing. It
is here, then, in this life, that all merit or
demerit is acquired whereby a man's condition in the
life hereafter is improved or worsened. Therefore,
let no one hope to obtain any merit with God after he
is dead that he has neglected to obtain here in this
life.
So, then, those means which the Church constantly
uses in interceding for the dead are not opposed to
that statement of the apostle when he said, "For all
of us shall stand before the tribunal of Christ, so
that each may receive according to what he has done
in the body, whether good or evil."(236) For each man
has for himself while living in the body earned the
merit whereby these means can benefit him [after
death]. For they do not benefit all. And yet why
should they not benefit all, unless it be because of
the different kinds of lives men lead in the body? Accordingly, when sacrifices, whether of the altar or
of alms, are offered for the baptized dead, they are
thank offerings for the very good, propitiations for
the not-so-very-bad [non valde malis], and, as for
the very bad--even if they are of no help to the
dead--they are at least a sort of consolation to the
living. Where they are of value, their benefit
consists either in obtaining a full forgiveness or,
at least, in making damnation more tolerable. 111. After the resurrection, however, when the
general judgment has been held and finished, the
boundary lines will be set for the two cities: the
one of Christ, the other of the devil; one for the
good, the other for the bad--both including angels
and men. In the one group, there will be no will to
sin, in the other, no power to sin, nor any further
possibility of dying. The citizens of the first
commonwealth will go on living truly and happily in
life eternal. The second will go on, miserable in
death eternal, with no power to die to it. The
condition of both societies will then be fixed and
endless. But in the first city, some will outrank
others in bliss, and in the second, some will have a
more tolerable burden of misery than others. 112. It is quite in vain, then, that some--indeed
very many--yield to merely human feelings and deplore
the notion of the eternal punishment of the damned
and their interminable and perpetual misery. They do
not believe that such things will be. Not that they
would go counter to divine Scripture--but, yielding
to their own human feelings, they soften what seems
harsh and give a milder emphasis to statements they
believe are meant more to terrify than to express the
literal truth. "God will not forget," they say, "to
show mercy, nor in his anger will he shut up his
mercy." This is, in fact, the text of a holy
psalm.(237) But there is no doubt that it is to be
interpreted to refer to those who are called "vessels
of mercy,"(238) those who are freed from misery not
by their own merits but through God's mercy. Even so,
if they suppose that the text applies to all men,
there is no ground for them further to suppose that
there can be an end for those of whom it is said,
"Thus these shall go into everlasting
punishment."(239) Otherwise, it can as well be
thought that there will also be an end to the
happiness of those of whom the antithesis was said:
"But the righteous into life eternal." But let them suppose, if it pleases them, that, for
certain intervals of time, the punishments of the
damned are somewhat mitigated. Even so, the wrath of
God must be understood as still resting on them. And
this is damnation--for this anger, which is not a
violent passion in the divine mind, is called "wrath"
in God. Yet even in his wrath--his wrath resting on
them--he does not "shut up his mercy." This is not to
put an end to their eternal afflictions, but rather
to apply or interpose some little respite in their
torments. For the psalm does not say, "To put an end
to his wrath," or, "After his wrath," but, "In his
wrath." Now, if this wrath were all there is [in
man's damnation], and even if it were present only in
the slightest degree conceivable--still, to be lost
out of the Kingdom of God, to be an exile from the
City of God, to be estranged from the life of God, to
suffer loss of the great abundance of God's blessings
which he has hidden for those who fear him and
prepared for those who hope in him(240) --this would
be a punishment so great that, if it be eternal, no
torments that we know could be compared to it, no
matter how many ages they continued. 113. The eternal death of the damned--that is, their
estrangement from the life of God--will therefore
abide without end, and it will be common to them all,
no matter what some people, moved by their human
feelings, may wish to think about gradations of
punishment, or the relief or intermission of their
misery. In the same way, the eternal life of the
saints will abide forever, and also be common to all
of them no matter how different the grades of rank
and honor in which they shine forth in their
effulgent harmony. |